Dean Martin Biography (2004)

Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis we had a very unique unbelievable relationship and we both had tremendous ride when Dean left Jerry he didn't have an identity dad had to reinvent himself Dean Martin left a legacy that was just unparalleled to any other performance there were like 50 sides to Dean Martin Dean Martin was a very complicated man and I don't even know where to start Dean Martin is next on biography [Music] well why don't we do that it's brilliance on the trial in song well he made it look easy made everything look like war Pratap that was his gift when I think of my father today I think it probably the coolest sweetest most talented man I ever met in my life or that the world had ever had ever seen he was suave and handsome Dean Martin embodied the word cool he was the coolest guy in the world I mean I think a grenade could go off in front of him he go I think that was a grenade he's got that kind of personality nothing bothered him he was a member of the legendary Rat Pack Frank Sinatra Sammy Davis jr. Joey Bishop and Peter Lawford they epitomize the high life booze women and the bright lights of Vegas the Rat Pack came together at a magical moment in time they could do no wrong they had the stomping grounds of Las Vegas people thought they had all the money in the world they were on a pedestal and you know what everybody wanted to be part of that group you keep your hands off and they do singing quack should I try bombs away he rose to staggering heights of Fame with his partner Jerry Lewis becoming the straight man who got plenty of his own laughs Dean was the funny one Jerry I think was a bit trepidatious about Dean's natural humor and Jerry Lewis was was wild and and Dean was low-key and he'd do hey pally what's happening he'd do that low-key stuff and he had a great sense of timing Dean and a Baathist way with comedy Martin and Lewis would dominate stage radio television and film for a decade when I think about the magic that Jerry Lewis and dad had when you could see them looking at each other but they would play to each other it was like they wanted to make the other laugh and it was it was like their own private little world and we were just on the outside looking in but the relationship soured leading to one of the biggest breakups in show business history with your eyeball it started to fall apart because of outside factions which is always the case you know the minute you see two people they're terribly happy there's always that wonderful group of people that can't wait to spoil that because they don't have it fans of Dean and Jerry's looked at them as being a married couple almost when the breakup occurred it was it was like a sudden divorce and I think it really really shocked people because they thought Martin and Lewis would go on forever and no one thought Martin would ever be successful without Lewis of course you heard all the the critics you're saying oh well Jerry Lewis is gonna make it poor Dean Martin you know he's not going to make it it was not a good time because Jerry we had a bunch of hits I wanted as far as motion motion pictures went dad wasn't working and so it was a very difficult time people were very afraid when the team split up that Jerry was going to be the successful one and Dean was going to fade away into oblivion [Music] padeen would persevere making a tremendous comeback on his own in film television and music the smooth crooner found a new generation of adoring fans including the king of rock and roll Elvis Presley have loved my father and he loved his singing style when I met Elvis he said to me you know they call me the king of rock and roll but your dad is the king of cool if you look at Elvis his moves what else was doing there was a part of him that he found so attractive about Dean Martin that he wanted to emulate it was definitely the that that's suave the smoothness the tonality the behind Dean Martin's carefree public image was an intensely private man that few if any really knew Dean was a loner it was the insignia that I would give to his character and his personality she liked and preferred to be alone the Dean was very within himself he never volunteered too much about himself he loved to kid around and have fun and make fun of me and so forth but he wasn't the kind of guy that you know in my opinion that you could really get too personal with the fact that Dean was a loner is the big secret of his life that nobody ever discovered nobody was allowed in the dressing room so he was very aloof and we respected that and we left him that way so nobody ever got to know him Dean strong desire to be alone was actually masking a deeper issue he was ashamed of his lack of education one night at his house at a party where there were politicians movie stars and writers I did see him and I went upstairs to find him he didn't want to go downstairs so we talked and we talked about his lack of education it was afraid that perhaps he would say something that would make him seem dumb not wanting to be exposed in that regard he had a wonderful way of letting you think he knew nothing about what was happening in the world he was very complex you have to understand something that he had all these careers there was stage motion pictures television records if you were to have these success in just one of those careers it would be amazing but he had them all and you cannot not be complex to be able to do all those things Dean Martin was a complicated man outgoing yet distant charming yet indifferent while his fans embraced his cool and aloof persona it was much harder for some of his family it was difficult and he wasn't a good father he was a good man and where he came from that meant a great deal more I wanted to have a relationship with my father where he we jump in the car together go someplace and you know maybe have something to eat and talk about things that were important to me he he couldn't do that I was the only one that ever ever got close to him including his family his family never got as close as I was for a man who touched so many people's lives he seemed himself untouchable great it was a character trait that came from living a life outside anybody else's rules [Music] [Applause] [Music] he never had a single singing or acting lesson but Dean Martin simply possessed an innate ability to hold an audience in the palm of his hand Dean captivated women and men like the women just wanted to be with Dean they loved the twinkle in the eye and the little mystery that Dean had about himself men they love the idea that Dean had a drink in one hand and women on the other he had that command without trying thus called command and mystique and prestige that prestige came from humble origins the steel mill town of student vilo hi-oh where his parents settled at the turn of the century my grandfather Gaetano Crosetti came over from Italy 1913 Ellis Island and he set up shop there his brothers had come before him and he was a barber and then he married my grandmother Angela bara she was also Italian they had two sons the second name Dino ko Shetty was born on June 7th 1917 he grew up in a tight-knit Italian community surrounded by a big extended family there were actually five cousins all of the Crosetti boys never pretty wild but they were they were good boys but you know a little crazy but it wasn't easy growing up in Steubenville at the height of the depression Dino dropped out of high school and took a string of odd jobs ranging from steel worker to bootlegger to car dealer came from a tough tough life when he was a young man he was a dealer being around a lot of guys that were wise guys at those days and his life was not Charlie show business and fun and games he had job at the Rec cigar store that's had gambling in a back room he used to run cigarettes across the Ohio River so he was into all sorts of stuff he also had a brief stint in the boxing ring my father boxed under the name kid crocheting he said that he had 12 professional bouts and that he won all but eleven of them he really got out of boxing because it was he broke all his fingers up and bent his nose and a few other things and decided that wasn't really the easiest way to go but the tough kid from Steubenville had other aspirations Dino started stretching his musical and acting muscles at an early age he came home one day astounding news that he was going to be on the elks minstrel show so I'm going to sing so we went to see it and he was wonderful Dean enlisted his neighborhood friends to form the first of many bands and we formed a group called gondoliers little jobs different places weddings or something like that we'd play being always saying the people that knew him they said that he was always singing he would go he would sing anywhere he could at first entertaining people was just for fun but in 1936 18-year old Dino and a friend took a trip to Hollywood Dino stood in front of the Paramount gates in a hall he knew what he wanted to do but first he had to make it at a Steubenville living in Steubenville the most a person can make of themselves was to work in the steel mills or to pump gas or maybe work in the gambling halls there really wasn't an easy way out as far as student Ville goes that was some place he I think was a motivator for him I'm not gonna spend the rest of my life here that's for sure he really wanted to get out of that steel mill town in such a big way Dino continued to work long hours at a variety of jobs while practicing his act on his friends any chance he got but he wasn't all about hard work even in Steubenville Dino enjoyed the nightlife you know if they got through working at 2:00 in the morning and we ride around the car and he's telling jokes and singing to us all the time you start getting daylight I would drive up to the horses and I drop him drop him off and for 50 cents an hour we would get onto his horse and play like real cowboys up and down he got to be quite a man on that Morse's that's why he was so good and those Cowboys scenes he was an experienced man on a horse while Dino aspired to be an entertainer his parents wanted him to have security and take on the family business he didn't want to go to school so my husband was a little worried and so we gave him some money and he says now um if you don't want to go to school maybe you should learn to be a barber well about a half hour later Dean Dean came back and he said to pop here's your money and I don't want to be a barber instead Dino made the rounds in the local nightclub scene and the opportunity to leave stupid film to all of a sudden he comes up and he says I'm leaving town I'm gonna go to the Youngstown I got a job there's a dealer but they have an orchestra and they told me I could sing that I wouldn't get paid for it but to make it Dean okra Shetty would have to leave more than his hometown behind he literally would have to make a new name for himself I'm being that crew Shetty was so hard to pronounce they decided to change it to a Nino martini at first then there was at the time there was an actor by the name of Nina martini so they decided to change that to Dean Martin Dean was focused on his entertainment career performing in different venues across Ohio but he also wanted a family one day while rehearsing he met a pretty well-educated young woman named Betty MacDonald they married in 1941 Dean would often leave Betty behind because road traveling wasn't really a lifestyle you know for a couple to be doing Betty stayed back and before long she became pregnant and eventually had three more children but marriage and children couldn't keep Dean from the road his constant absence put a strain on the marriage Betty was stressed raising children by herself and turned to alcohol and they were going their separate ways game was going one direction Betty was going the other Dean's career was about to take him further from home his reputation in the Ohio Club circuit was steadily growing and before long he got a call to go to New York the gig filling in for another singer Frank Sinatra in 1943 after years of toiling in nightclubs across Ohio Dean Martin was headed for New York to play the biggest gig of his life Frank Sinatra had been slated to sing at a club called the Rio Bamba but at the last minute he cancelled they were left with nobody to to fill his spot they got a hold of Dean Martin he kind of fit the st. Billy was an Italian crooner it smiled a lot and the girls just went crazy just like they did for Sinatra Dean would continue to work the New York circuit but the big break he was looking for eluded him this was the war of years money was was really tight for people and rationing was going on people didn't spend a lot of money but and so Dean struggled it was during those early years in New York that Dean was introduced to a gangly teenage comic named Jerry Lewis the two quickly formed a close bond 110 years older than the other but the younger one looked at him as his hero honest brother and he looked at the kid like he was his very own and how to protect them they often play the same clubs as separate acts but one night their worlds collided at the 500 club in Atlantic City Jerry was performing at the 500 and there was a singer on the bill and the singer took Bill all of a sudden so Jerry was left there with with his act and half a show there they needed to fill the bill so they were panicked Jerry called Dean came out the audience just how old the unlikely pairing was a hit Martin and Lewis was born audiences love the combination of Dean smooth tunes and Jerry's loony antics he'd loved watching me score and I loved watching him get me out of trouble and that was the magic Dean and Jerry had this special electricity not many people have it the more they work together the stronger their friendship grew our friendship Lewis would later encapsulate in the title of his book Dean and me a love story we had a very unique unbelievable relationship and we rooted so hard for one another and cared so desperately for one another dad loved Jerry he got a big kick out of him they were like brothers they knew each other so well our off the stage times together was usually the reason we did what we did on stage and the spontaneity came from things that happened that day or the day before but while Dean's partnership with Jerry was blossoming his marriage to Betty was falling apart in 1948 while Betty was pregnant with their fourth child Deena Dean met and fell in love with another woman Jeannie Beger Dean left his wife and married Jeannie in 1949 Betty was devastated she was hoping for a very long time but he would he would come back but it wasn't meant to be it was very very tough for my mother it was tough for us she started to drink she was very very unhappy and it just it got worse eventually you know we went to live with my father and everything changed overnight I said why did you leave us and he said you know it was it was tough he said I you know I was tired of coming home having to cook for you he said I was working hard all the time he sort of just you said and I fell in love with Jeannie meanwhile Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis were becoming a comedy powerhouse selling out shows across the country in 1949 their immense popularity would earned the duo their own radio show on NBC they became so big on radio and radio was still really big at that time people who could hear them they could they could visualize in their minds what Dean and Jerry were doing audiences wouldn't have to imagine what Martin and Lewis were doing for long don't say anymore introduce my first song the next year Dean and Jerry started hosting their own TV variety show the Colgate Comedy Hour that allowed people to actually see who they were listening to all these years and Dean I mean women and the girls never really got to see how handsome he was until he was in front of that camera so television even took him into even a bigger bigger step in their in their careers they were so big and I think that when it finally kind of like dawned on me oh my gosh look what they did is when they were on the balcony [Music] they're leaning out the window and they're throwing their little autograph cards pictures of the two of them together out to the the crowd thousands and thousands of people down there and you see all of these kids are there with their arms Martin and Lewis also signed a movie contract with Paramount Studios the same place where Dean stood in awe when he was 18 years old they would turn out box-office hits like my friend Irma the caddy and living it up they became so powerful so big they were number one box office attractions in the world out taking Bing Crosby and Bob Hope but with success came heartache the partnership that had worked for so many years began to wear under the strain as they became a huge sensation all around the world Jerry took more control and Jerry wanted to write direct produced star in he he always wanted to do more dad on the other hand he would like to get there do the best possible work he could show me my mark tell me what time to be here and I'll do it but then he would like to leave it alone do the things that he wanted to do he wasn't as driven in in that part of the business it had been building they were expected to do the same old thing in every single movie and every single performance that they did Jerry was always going to be the cut-up clown Dean was always going to be the crooner and I think they wanted to spread their wings and do more in 1955 Shirley MacLaine co-starred with Dean and Jerry in artists and models and witnessed the disintegration of the legendary team firsthand it was my first film with them they were fighting it was awful I remember we had a scene on the stairs Jerry and I and the girl me was supposed to be the intricate kind of little star of that scene and he got very upset and went to his trailer and I don't think it was about competition with me I think it was about unhappiness with working with Dane it was not pleasant at all Jerry Lewis recalls the anger and the fighting but he remembers it starting on a later movie the problem started on the last film we made Hollywood a bus which I have never seen to this day still won't look at it we went all through that film for three months very angry at one method we were divided by outside forces and we didn't even know it what do you need him for you're the best singer that ever lived what do you need him for was something that people had to do and it got under our skin and each altercation made it worse whatever the reason the tension was mounting it came to a head over a film role that Jerry had written for Dean they called for dad to be a policeman dad said Jer just make me a detective so I don't have to wear I'm completely out fit and Jerry said no the part calls for a uniformed policeman dad couldn't believe it you know we were partners and now you're telling me what I gotta wear dad said get somebody else and Jerry did and that was the last meeting they had Dean walked out the door after 10 years and 16 movies Martin and Lewis were finished the two men who had grown up together and had grown apart and there was no turning back it made us realized there were things we wanted to do alone which we would never have thought of in the first nine and a half years you know they had different wants and needs and likes in their life and they went in different directions Gerry would go on to make that film you wrote for Dean the delicate delinquent with a no-name actor the movie was a success anyway Dean Martin would soon find out life without Jerry Lewis would not be easy Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis were one of the most successful show business teams in history but in 1956 after ten years together Dean was now struggling to make it on his own when Dean left Jerry he didn't have an identity dad had to reinvent himself it was kind of a scary time for him at that time that was a very rough period going from the top with Jerry Lewis and then seeing Jerry stuff hang way up there and dad not being successful Dean desperately wanted to prove that he could be successful without Jerry Lewis the first movie he made after the breakup a musical comedy called 10,000 bedrooms failed to deliver weight it was written like a Dean Martin Jerry Lewis movie without Jerry Lewis Dean didn't need to be doing another Martin and Lewis film he needed to be doing a Dean Martin film and that's probably why 10,000 bedrooms was a total disaster the failure stung even harder because Jerry Lewis was enjoying instant solo success but in 1958 Dean finally got an opportunity to launch his comeback the movie was called the Young Lions and 20th Century Fox had already cast Marlon Brando and Montgomery Clift the studio's had their reservations Dean's last film flopped pretty miserably but Dean decided that he would do the film for near nothing [Music] dad was nervous about that because they here's Brando and cliff do you know two actors that he admired who are like the best actors ever so he was a little intimidated to do this Dean's performance earned him critical praise and established him as a legitimate actor I think that was the first glimpse that the public God of dad separated from Jerry Lewis and they said Wow he's unbelievable and he was unbelievable that's what brought Dean back on the map as far as motion pictures that single film was a turning point at the same time Dean made a comeback of another kind in 1958 while rock-and-roll was dominating the charts Dean still appealed to fans and had two top-ten hits a lot of pop singers fell by the wayside in this time period teen Martin must have had something special because he managed to still stay in the top ten Dean success and motion pictures continued next came a film called some came running pairing him with Frank Sinatra and reuniting him with Shirley MacLaine he was the best in some came running in my opinion he was superb that was probably more like him than anyone else or any other character he played in 1959 Dean would have another breakthrough role cast opposite John Wayne and Rio Bravo Dean played an alcoholic battling inner demons by taking the role in Rio Bravo Dean also showed his versatility he took that role in to new heights that people just couldn't believe while his movie and music careers were back on track Dean decided to return to his roots performing in nightclubs it was here that he created the image that most people have of him today he started with the the nightclub act at the Sands Hotel they conjured up this suave debonair a tuxedo of martini or scotch and one hand a cigarette and the other and it was it was cool but just like the early days Martin worked better when he wasn't alone it started innocently enough first by inviting friends like Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis jr. to be in the audience then he invited them on stage soon they were part of the act then they started working together and in would pop Frank or in would pop Sammy and the place would go nuts what went on in those two hours on the stage so spontaneously with the audience was absolutely brilliant people are too politically correct today they really don't understand what it means to be completely to throw caution to the winds and just be whatever occurs to you at the time it wasn't long before Peter Lawford and Joey Bishop joined in together these five men would be known collectively as the Rat Pack every single night all of them they would all be on stage all just cutting up just having a good time together and the audience just ate it up the pinnacle of Rat Pack glory wasn't on stage but on film the movie Ocean's eleven launched them to icon status [Music] that the movie appealed to audiences because it was another fantasy there they were in Las Vegas robbing the town of all the money all with the image that they all portrayed as being Playboy's and having the world on a string the Rat Pack redefines celebrity they were larger than life a high-octane combination of talent and testosterone swinging Playboy's with connections to both presidents and mobsters it was in this superstar fraternity that Dean had his closest friend Frank Sinatra loved my father and they were like brothers now when dad passed away one of the statements that Frank said was that dad was like the air he breathed they were very close dad never treated Frank like most everybody else treated Frank and that always blew Frank's mind and that's why in many many photos you see in Clips you see you see Frank actually looking up to dad and admiring him so because no one treated Frank like that and that's why he adored him and when they were together you could see that even without the Rat Pack Dean was a giant in August of 1964 at the height of Beatlemania Martin grabbed the number one spot on the charts knocking off the fat for everybody loves somebody became his signature song the Beatles were the rage in America they had seven songs in the top ten everything was the English beat Dean's record came out my god within two weeks it took the country by storm they called him the Beatle buster at the time it was a wonderful moment that was that was a coup you know the Beatles number one and there's Dean Martin he would earn a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame the first of three for his achievements in music film and television Dean was a major star on his own and on his own terms and he was about to become even bigger Dean went on to do some great great work which he could never have done Martin had proved that he could be successful without Jerry Lewis in the movies and with hit records and in 1965 he was offered his own variety show on NBC he did not want that yes we asked a lot of money a lot of stock he didn't want to be committed to a weekly show so he said I'll do it if I can only show up one day a week and that day had to be Sunday because he had something to do either making a movie five days a week and he always played golf on Saturday and he said I'll never agree to that but they did so we had to show up the Dean Martin show debuted in September 1965 Dean imported his Vegas act for TV playing a cool cat in a tuxedo a drink in one hand a cigarette in the other an act he felt he didn't need to rehearse anymore he never did anything twice on the show because the first time was the only good time his work schedule was 5 hours a week that's all they had to do his lack of wanting to do it actually made that show the success it was because it was so unrehearsed don't go away now goes right after the station break station break I'm gonna die the audience loved Dean suave party guy act but fans began to think the character that throw a few back every week on television was the same person in real life our show was known as booze and broads because we had a lot of girls on the show and Dean was drinking quite heavily it looked like and he wasn't the drinking aspect of the Dean Martin persona is you know it wasn't gimmick he was not an alcoholic he didn't drink when he was when he was working they would bring out a little glass of Martinelli's apple juice and set it on a table his image all along was that of just a straight man so Dean or the couple of years following the breakup came across this idea of kind of a drunken inebriated playboy image with a drink in one hand and a girl in the other and it worked really well with his persona in those days they really wanted you to have a foursome they wanted you to have a label attached to you Dean didn't let the public's perception of him bother him he embraced it and used the image to his advantage so that's why I think it was a huge success because that was was his persona was he it was always a little tipsy and that did for his show definitely helped him I sure showed that Dean Martin was a funny man who could I'd live with anybody and sing his ballad is about well as anybody else and be charming to the ladies a great guy with the guys everybody loved him since he didn't have to rehearse for the show every day Dean would spend as much time as he could on the golf course it was the ideal sport for him he loved to play golf he get out there and be alone golf was definitely his way out that's what he did that really brought joy to his life he loved the golf you know nobody would bother you and I think just Dean had so many people pulling on his shirtsleeves and so many people around wanting a piece of him that he just needed the solitude it gave him a chance to stop think and maybe plan out what he was gonna do the next day what he was gonna do with his career down the road that was really mainly what he loved other than singing of course he would tell you he loved women the rumors about Dean Martin's womanizing are part of his legend his wife Jeannie knew what was going on but it was never discussed in front of their children you know I just thought that that dad had this perfect relationship you know with with my with mom although you know in hindsight when I think back you know here he was it was Dean Martin and you know these all these and women around him all day long so I'm sure that occurred and I'm sure more than we know the mom and dad it was always very even-keeled you know if there was any conflict they would keep it between themselves in fact there was never any shouting at the Martin family house because Dean would do anything to avoid an argument he was non-combat up to a fault if there was a problem he'd go right upstairs he wanted to finish dinner I was a little drinky-poo getting his pajamas go watch a Western he didn't like confrontation any cost you know and he would bury his head you know he had in the sand and not have to you know go there didn't want to talk about that life at the Martin house wasn't always wistful but it was consistent every night Dean was at the dinner table on time but one thing my mom insisted on was that he would be home for dinner at 6 o'clock every night and the entire family be around that table although Dean came home to his family after dinner he always wanted to be alone all his life he was on so he liked his the the quiet time the problem for me is that I never had any tie I didn't have enough time with him to me he wasn't always there for me in the way that you know a daughter wants her father the breakup of the Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis comedy team was bitter and enduring Dean vowed he would never see or speak to Jerry again it was finished and he just didn't look back he did not want to hear Jerry Lewis name he really didn't and he was adamant about that once you understood dad and and and what he liked or did not like or a request that he might have had of you and you didn't do that he knew that you didn't care and when he found out that you didn't care it was just over but twenty years after the painful split the man who would never forgive or forget would do something unforgettable in 1976 Dean appeared unannounced on the Muscular Dystrophy Association telethon when I saw dad walk out I didn't know he was going out there no one knew Jerry didn't know Frank knew and I saw dad and I I mean I heard the audience go ah and they started to apply if it was so great to see that when Frank arranged that it was incredible it was magic and it was very courageous on my partner's part it was a dramatic television moment to witness but some of Dean's family and friends aren't so sure it was a surprise everyone thinks it was I thought it was a to put it bluntly kind of a rig you know I felt that you know Frank being there hosting it and the pathos and bringing them together you know was a little much I personally didn't buy it I think it was healthy for both of them to see each other and for America to see them but there was something a little edgy about it for me I think that was all a setup and Dean went along with it as he always would with anything Dean loved everybody and he didn't want to make anybody unhappy so stage-door not after that brief public reunion Dean and Jerry would slowly rebuild their friendship but it would never be the tight bond it once was it brought them closer together to where they once in a while would get on the phone and talk to each other Dean and his ex-wife Jeannie also managed to reconnect after years of cold silence a close friendship grew so close they even bought homes a few blocks away from each other and had dinner once or twice a week she was his sweetheart right up to the time he died she was a great lady in his life Jeannie was really the love of Dean's life Dean learned that following the divorce and break up even Martin's relationship with his children grew stronger and then us kids even though we were older and we was we started falling by and literally we saw that it came full circle that we were a whole family again it was act act absolutely great in 1973 Dean would marry one last time and adopt a daughter that marriage too would end in divorce in all Dean had eight children from his three marriages some would even attempt to follow in their father's large footsteps Dean Paul Dean and Jeannie's eldest son tried his hand at singing and acting but never achieved his father's success he was so good at everything he did it was a great tennis player he was a very good actor and Dino was so gorgeous and so alive and funny incredible guy certainly a guy who was into so many things you could say an overachiever if you will but I mean from football racecars tennis and then ultimately what he enjoyed most was flying his passion for flying would lead him to join the Air National Guard in March of 1987 Dean Paul went on a routine training mission and never returned he vanished off the radar screen nine minutes after takeoff the Martin family waited five excruciating days before hearing the news they were dreading as the military jets roared overhead a single pilot fell away symbolizing the missing man California Air National Guard captain Dean Martin he was just taken way too early it was shocking because for days they didn't know what had happened to him they couldn't find his plane and it was just devastating dean paul's plane had crashed into the mountains dean already not in the best of health would never recover from the loss of his son dad it really killed him and as it did all of us it was devastating for him it took the wind out of his sails for sure without Dean's knowledge Jerry Lewis attended the funeral Lewis didn't want to be a distraction when Dean found out later that day that his old partner had come to pay his respects he called to thank him the two men who had only spoken briefly off and on since their famed reunion spoke for an hour and when dad found that out that he was so moved that that's that's what I think they actually got back together that was the real true reunion of the two of them not long after that conversation Dean would get back on stage with Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis jr. reuniting the Rat Pack satisfaction I get out of working with these two bums is that we have more laughs than the audience but the glory days were over Dean's heart just wasn't in it did you especially hated parties have 90 watch television and that's what he wanted to do it was one thing that broke him up in the last days with Frank Sinatra who wanted to go party all the time he didn't like at the end to go out at night and sort of move around with Frank that's why they act at the end broke up with he and Sally and Frank you know you have to understand these guys were getting older and they had been doing this for years so uh it had to end sometime Dean would make one last public appearance in Las Vegas for his 72nd birthday and for the occasion there was one more reunion with Jerry Lewis why we broke up I'll never know I have no idea what happened because I was no your today go I'm the Jew soon after Dean a longtime smoker was diagnosed with emphysema but he refused to go to a hospital in October of 1995 Jeanie called Rickey and asked him to visit his father she told him to be prepared when I got that call I had to come down and I had dinner with him it was you know it was one of the worst nights of my life you know to see the the condition that he was in it was just just absolutely horrible and so I knew it was gonna be soon that he would he would pass away it was just a very sad thing to see him wither away like that Dean Martin died at his home on Christmas Day 1995 from acute respiratory failure he was 78 to this day millions of fans around the world still worshipped the suave Entertainer from Steubenville Ohio Dean Martin left no legacy that was just unparalleled to any other performer he succeeded in stage radio television movies and recordings no one Frank Sinatra couldn't do it on television Elvis Presley couldn't do it on television but Dean Martin did his family and friends knew that beyond the cool public image the larger-than-life status he achieved was a man who dreamed of hitting the big time and was genuinely surprised that all the fuss had created he was just a remarkable human being and and I miss him terribly Dean was always always a marvelous human being he he was so unassuming and so great it was the funniest person I had ever and maybe says he was the most underrated brilliant performer in a hundred years of our business and it just gave me the greatest joy in my heart to see that he showed them all [Music]

Channel: More Music Shows

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Id: CnF3v450nmY

Length: 43min 14sec (2594 seconds)

Published: Sun May 10 2020